A formalism is presented for the investigation of the reaction $ed\to e^{\prime }{K}^{+}\Lambda n$ in the relativistic impulse approximation. The formalism is based on a tree-level, effective Lagrangian model for the underlying virtual photoproduction reaction amplitude which incorporates a variety of baryon resonances with spins up to $\frac{5}{2}$ and the two kaon resonances, $K^{☆}\left(892\right)$ and $K1\left(1270\right)$. The parameters of the model were fit to a large pool of proton photoproduction data from the CLAS, GRAAL, SAPHIR, and LEPS Collaborations and to CLAS data for the virtual photoproduction structure functions ${\sigma }_U$, ${\sigma }_T$, ${\sigma }_L$, ${\sigma }_{TT}$, ${\sigma }_{LT}$, and ${\sigma }_{L{T}^{\prime }}$. The final-state $\Lambda n$ interaction is incorporated in the model by means of a three-dimensional overlap integral based on a simple phenomenological $\Lambda n$ potential. Results are presented for both the differential cross section, $d\sigma /d{\Omega }_K$, and the double differential cross section, $d\sigma /d{\Omega }_{K}d{E}_K$, for the virtual photoproduction of positive kaons and $\Lambda$'s from the deuteron.

• Received 10 May 2013
• Revised 7 January 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.89.024001